I
received an interesting e-mail from a frequent Message Board poster a little while back.

Essentially,
he asked, Mad Professor, if you are SO good, why arent you rich?

He
reasoned that if I could use Precision-Shooting to fuel my current lifestyle, why
wouldnt I make some huge bets, so that I could make some huge scores and
retire!He also lamented the fact that with
my conservative betting-methods, other players would likely make MORE money off of my own
rolls than I do.

Thats
actually a VERY good question and comment.

In
fact, some of the guys that I see regularly at the casinos ask pretty much the same
question.Of course, sometimes its in
the form of, Dawg, if I shot them bones like you, Id be makin a
killin, boy!I guess
thats pretty much the same question/statement, but in a slightly different language.

Okay,
the answer isnt really complicated, but its multi-part.

I
can summarize it pretty simply:

ØI
DO win consistently, but not all of my session wins are big.

ØIt
is that consistency that lets me have so many winning (19-out-of-20) sessions.

ØIf
I had higher win-goals, I KNOW that my consistency and win-ratio
would actually drop.

If
you start out betting high, and then change your bets only when it starts to go bad...you
are changing your outlook on the game. Instead of being concerned about how much
money I have at risk on the table, I would rather concentrate on my shooting.

I
would rather rack up a small profit, and then build on my shooting success from there.
If you have a lot of money on the table to begin with, and you don't initially
regress your Place bets; then your shooting actually has to be even better, so that you
can cover the cost of those bets. Only after they are paid for, can you start
collecting profit.

Think
of it this way.

Lets
say that my Pass Line Point is 5.On a
2x-Odds table, Ill have $5 on the Pass Line with $10 in Odds.I might also start with $136-Inside.That is $48 each on the 6 & 8, plus $40 on the
9.Any hit pays $56, and I immediately
regress the Inside bets to $12 each on the 6 & 8, with $10 on the 9.At that point, I have a total of $49 still on the
layout ($34-Inside and $5 on the Pass Line with $10 in Odds), BUT, I also have a $7 profit
locked up in my chip-rail!

Now
a $7 profit may not seem like much, but the hand isnt over yet.In fact, it has hopefully just begun.If my shooting is grooved in, this will probably
turn out to be a VERY profitable roll.But
even if I 7-Out on my very next roll, I can console myself with the fact that my original
bets have been COMPLETELY paid for, AND I have an additional small profit to show for it.In as few as TWO tosses of the dice, I have paid
for all of my initial bets, and locked up a profit.Even
if it is a short hand, I still have something to show for it.As they say in Canada thats not bad,
eh!

Okay,
lets look at the same initial bet, but without the regression.

Even
if I dont roll any non-paying numbers, it will still take me at least
four rolls before everything is paid for.That
is DOUBLE the amount of rolls that I need if I use a regression on my Place bets.

That
is how I avoid the pain of a quick 7-Out.

If
the hand turns into a good one, I still have plenty of time to press my Place bets as they
hit.At the same time, Ill ALWAYS be
locking up a profit with each paying-hit.It
may not generate mega-profits on every hand, but what it does do, is to almost always lock
up a profit every time that I get my hands on the dice.

As
to that readers second comment about other people at the table making more off of my rolls
than I do...well...that's just the nature of the game.

There
are numerous times per day when other players make MUCH more money off of my rolls than I
do. Thats great for them! However, I pocket my profit while they usually
play all of theirs back.

If you have a profit of $250 in your rail, and you almost always lose it back, you might
as well go and play the slot machines. A typical slot player will hit a $250 payout,
and then proceed to piss it all back into the machine.

Most
craps players look down on slot-players, yet most veteran craps players have the same lack
of discipline. Go figure!

The
reason most Precision-Shooters DON'T make more money is because:

(a) They bet way too much and way too frequently on
random-rollers and unqualified dice-setters.

(b)
They pre-load
their bets on their own rolls too early, and they press their bets too
aggressively.

(c) They make
too many Prop bets that are not consistent enough money-makers.

(d) They don't
lock-up an early profit.

(e) They play
back too much profit before they quit their current session.

(f)They
play too long and without a proper attitude.

The reason that there are not more Precision-Shooters out there making outstanding
amounts of money is not because it can't be done. It is because the amount of
dedication, commitment, determination, maturity, and discipline is just too much effort
for most people to make.

Lets
take a look at those six items that I just mentioned:

(a)Players bet way
too much and too frequently on random-rollers and unqualified
dice-setters.If there is one chief reason
for a shortage of Precision-Shooters who can show CONSISTENT profit; it is because of this
single problem.

I
have also fallen in this too much/too frequently trap
countless times.

Every
time it happens, it causes me to raise my shooter- qualification bar higher
and higher.Why should I waste my hard-earned
money on unqualified shooters?If I do that,
it is simply GAMBLING.

Do
not be fooled.As Precision-Shooters, we are
not in a casino to gamble.We are there to
make money.

The
only way to CONSISTENTLY do that is to engineer as much risk as possible out of our bets.To accomplish that, we have to be ultra-selective
on how we bet, and on whom we bet.Its
difficult enough to make money with Precision-Shooting.Why should we piss and fritter it away by gambling it on random-rollers and
unqualified dice-setters?Thats like
buying lottery tickets.

Sure,
there is a thrill with the possibility of occasional wins, but
there is the more likely downside of probable losses.On random-rollers and unqualified dice-setters, we
will usually lose much more frequently than we win.

Hey,
if you like the thrill of betting then go for it.For me, I like the thrill of consistent winning PROFIT, a lot more than
the thrill of frequent betting and even more frequent losing.How about you?If you agree; then reduce your betting on
random-rollers and unqualified dice-setters.

(b) Players
pre-load their bets on their own rolls too early, and they press their
bets too aggressively.This
is where experience and the cost-of-learning can be costly.So how much education do you want?You
have to build-up your Precision-Shooting skills BEFORE you build up your bets!Just
because other players are betting aggressively on your throws, does not mean that you have
to.Slow and steady wins, ALWAYS beat a
shooting-star that shines momentarily; then crashes and burns shortly thereafter.Ill say it again, build-up your
Precision-Shooting skills BEFORE you build up your bets!

(c)Players
make too many Prop bets that are not consistent enough money-makers.First let me say that Prop bets can be VERY
profitable for the Precision-Shooter.I make
a ton of money from them, and they can be a powerful weapon if you use it properly.However, a lot of players who are currently in the
break-even phase with their shooting-skills, are actually eroding their profit
by making too many Prop bets.

Its
easy to deceive yourself about the profitability of Prop bets.This is where accurate session-notes come into
play.You have to make note of all the prop
action that you make, how many times they hit, how much they pay, and most importantly how
much profit or loss you were able to bank.You
have to do that for every session.If it
isnt a consistent money-maker; then reduce them to the level where they are
profitable.For some players,
that will mean eliminating their Prop bets entirely.If that is the case, then so be it.Again, I have to ask you whether you are there for
the thrill of the bet, or the profit of the game?Its
your choice and its your bankroll.Just
dont huff and puff when others make more consistent
profit than you do.

(d)Players
don't lock-up an early profit.I spoke enough
on this subject at the beginning of this article.Enough
said!

(e) Players play
back too much profit before they quit their current session.Ah, this is a touchy subject.How do you know when youve reached the
peak of your session profit? Simply, you
dont know in advance.This is one of
those hindsight things.However, through
experience, you already should know that you usually are ahead at some point during your
session.Do you stay and see if you can turn
that meager profit into something more substantial?Or
do you walk away with a small profit and a nagging-doubt that this could have been the
mega-session that youve dreamed about?

Heres
one method on how to figure out when to end a session.Youll have to look back on your accurate session-notes that you have
religiously maintained over the last twenty craps-sessions.From there you should be able to determine what your average high-point of
profit usually is.When you are approaching
that average high-point during your current session; that is when you finish out the hand
that you are playing and you get the hell out of Dodge City.

There
are many other methods for quitting while you are ahead.Some use a set-percentage of your session bankroll, while others use a
profit-splitting method in which to continue play while locking up a profit.Any of these are useful.The only thing that I want to stress is that you
want to be able to walk with as much profit as possible, without losing back too much of
what youve already learned.

For
better or for worse, my method lets you quit at your average session-high.And if you havent started making DETAILED
session notes; then please dont delude and deceive yourself into thinking that you
are really SERIOUS about making consistent profit from this game you are only fooling
yourself.

(f)Players
play too long and without a proper attitude.Yes,
I know that you may have the stamina of a plow-horse, but save that for other pursuits,
like in the bedroom or for carrying your wifes shopping bags.Im not saying that every craps session has
to be one of those hit-and-run, lightning-strike maneuvers, but you have to put reasonable
limits on your table-exposure.If you are at
the craps table, and you start to get tired or hungry; then you have gone beyond the point
where you should have already ended your session.Im
not kidding.Your playing will not be up to
par, and your decision-making ability will have already been compromised.Do NOT stick around and PROVE that your
decision-making is not where it should be.End
the session, and head for the exit.

If
you follow all of this advice, you wont necessarily get rich, but I can guarantee
that your skill level and your profit-retention will be improved.When you can do all of these things seamlessly;
then your chances of consistent profit increases exponentially.